Who We Should Thank
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: There were a lot of friendships. There were also a lot of betrayals, meant or otherwise.
1. Ken and Osamu

Challenges:

The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 5.01 – gracious  
The Diversity Writing Challenge, h59 - write a fic that focuses on one of the seven sins in some way  
Valentines to White's Day Advent (2016), day 28 - roll a dice. That'll determine how many dice you're to roll after that. The second lot of dice determine how many chapters will be in your fic (eg. if your first roll is two, roll two die and the sum is how many chapters in your fic. If your first roll is five, roll five die after that, etc.), and review a fic with that many chapters. (2 - 2,2 = 4)

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 **Who We Should Thank**

Chapter 1  
 _Ken and Osamu_

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He only wished there was someone he could feel clearly towards. But it was all mixed up. Taichi who he'd respected so much at first had betrayed him. Milleniummon who he'd hated so much had loved him. And the Ichijouji's…they were the least and the most complicated of them all because he really had no idea how much they'd known, how much they'd suspected, how much they'd been simply innocent victims of all that had occurred.

But no matter how much blame they carried, they were the only ones in the end, apart from him, who paid a hefty price.

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He didn't know at first. He was in this new world and there was no way of knowing what had happened before. And there was only Cyberdramon, who ran rampart and who constantly needed attention, constantly needed to be tamed. He didn't know what it had cost those two boys to become involved with him.

But then he stumbled upon a television and learned it all.

At first, he was horrified. Horrified that Milleniummon's gibing had in fact roots in truth – and it was the truth. He saw the adventures he knew. He saw _his_ adventures. And now he was seeing Ken's adventures – and what he'd cost the boy…and his brother.

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He met Ken first. Which was unusual because most people tended to meet Osamu first, simply because he was a genius. But most people didn't get the benefit of the digital world. Or the weight.

In any case, the only reason he met Ken before Osamu was the digital world. The only reason he met them at all was the digital world too.

So he met Ken. This was after he met Tai and Agumon, and Milleniummon, and Gennai and Piximon too. Before Diabolomon stalked the internet though. Back when the gate had opened up in the real world and they'd watched, awestruck, as the children were sucked through it.

And he remembered a time four years ago where he'd seen a similar thing – and then caught arguing voices, one saying exactly the same thing.

'But there were monsters in the sky, Onii-chan!'

Of course, he knew what that boy's big brother was going to say. There's no such thing as monsters.

But he'd been to the digital world by then. He knew that was a lie.

And when the little boy fell behind, upset no-one believed him, he snuck up to him and whispered: 'There were monsters in the sky four years ago.'

The boy yelped in surprise. And Ryo grinned almost wolfishly at him. 'Hiya,' he said. 'I'm Akiyama Ryo.'

' Ich – Ken,' replied the boy.

'Just Ken?'

And then the rest of the family came along, and he worked out quickly why he hadn't wanted to say his surname. Poor kid wanted to see someone outside of the context of his big brother. His genius big brother – who also didn't believe the existence of digimon and the digital world. But this kid did. And he'd probably be a Chosen.

'I've got lots of stories,' he whispered to the boy, before they dragged him off. 'Come back tomorrow, and I'll tell you about them.'

He came back. And they became fast friends between those tales.

And the tales were oh so innocent back then.

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Of course, Osamu wasn't too thrilled that a stranger was filling his little brother's head with stories of monsters. But he let it be. Said something about fairytales being alright for some kids. Hoping they'll be alright for Ken as well. But he disliked Ryo enough on that principle alone and Ryo never tried to fix that, because the fact that Osamu disliked him had to be a comfort to Ken who only otherwise saw people from Osamu's shadow.

Maybe that was all wrong, in the end.

Maybe Osamu had realised something else. Guessed at something else. Guessed that this talk of monsters was going to destroy him, destroy his little brother. Maybe he'd been sharp enough – he was a genius after all – to realise that associating with Akiyama Ryo meant getting caught up in a grand plan that was going to rip the boy out of this world.

And these two were the ones who wound up paying the price in the aftermath, too.

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So, he never got along with Osamu. He became fast friends with Ken though. And then they got swept away into the digital world, and Ken found his partner digimon.

Ryo was happy. He really was. He was disappointed too because Ken got a partner and he still had temporary ones, this time a V-mon with some kid yet to meet him as his other half. This was before he learnt that Milleniummon was fated to be his partner. This was before he _believed_ what he'd learnt. But he was happy Ken had another friend besides him. He felt for the kid, stuck in his brother's shadow but too kind to try and worm his way out.

 _He needs to get stronger_ , he thought.

Oh, how wrong he was.

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Ken did get stronger. Made mistakes along the way. But never let go of that kind soul.

The Ken he was watching now was like someone else entirely. Dark. Cruel. Like… _Milleniummon_ …except where was the love driving him?

He saw it, finally. The fixation on V-mon. On Agumon. The resemble to Osamu he didn't put together until the amnesia, until the dreams. And then he understood. His love for his brother had twisted, just like Milleniummon's for his partner. Under separation. Under the darkness.

And then there was the flash of something black and his panic, his terror – and he recognised its source.

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Whatever Ken's seen had been – if indeed there'd been a sin at all – he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve that bit of Milleniummon's twisted consciousness ripping apart his own fragile soul. And he didn't deserve to lose his brother: the thing that kickstarted its growth, made it all go wrong. Was that one of Milleniummon's backup plans? To have his seed grow and consume the other's mind and reform his soul? And then get him to create or orchestrate the vessels? He'd gotten as far as Kimeramon until V-mon had pulled the plug on that little project, and it was all his fault for not protecting that kind little boy until the last.

But the guilt had faded at some point. After the D1 tournament. After those shadows of the Kaiser he'd met in the future with Milleniummon. Because Ken was Chosen too. Chosen, not a Tamer. Had Ken betrayed him just like the others? Ken had certainly forgotten him like them – but, and he almost didn't want to remind himself of this – Ken had a good reason to forget. And he'd lost much more.

Whether Ken had a part in the blame or not, he didn't deserve to have his soul crushed like it had been.

And Osamu… Osamu, for all his feelings against Ryo and even against Ken, did not deserve to die before he could make sense of it all.

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But the Ichijouji brothers were the ones he regretted leaving the most, in the end. Because they'd paid with blood for what he'd wrought…and was that okay? No, of course he wasn't. Had they taken the weight of the others' blame as well? Maybe.

He still blamed them though. It was why he'd chosen this: this stranger world and a second chance.

But the Ichijouji brothers… did he blame them? Sometimes… But seeing the weight they'd been crushed under, he felt sorry for them more.

It didn't matter, anyway. Ken and Osamu were in that faraway world. A world he could see through a TV screen but never again know.


	2. Taichi and the Chosen

**Who We Should Thank**

Chapter 2  
 _Taichi and the Chosen_

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Probably, the easiest to hate were the other Chosen. Taichi, Yamato, Mimi and the others. They'd known of the plan. The D1 tournament that had ripped apart his soul just to craft him into the perfect blade they could leave embedded in the beast and absolve themselves from it all.

It wasn't fair, that he was the only one expected to fight, the only one expected to make sacrifices. The chosen to _be_ sacrificed, at that. They'd all known that but that hadn't stopped them raising him as a pig for slaughter.

Till this day, he didn't know whether Ken had been aware of the truth or not. Whether Ken would ever find out. But he knew Taichi and Yamato knew. And Mimi too. He knew because he heard it from their own mouths.

Heard it from his own mouths, and never in his life had he felt so betrayed.

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Maybe he should have felt betrayed earlier than that. Take Taichi and Agumon, for example. When he'd teamed up with that Agumon to save the other Chosen from Milleniummon's grasp. And then Agumon went back to life with his original Chosen like that time with Ryo meant nothing at all. And, maybe to him, it didn't. It was a flux in time, after all. A pocket in the dimensions that he'd repaired.

That had been his first meeting with Milleniummon as well. He wondered if they'd known, even back then. If they'd known and let themselves be captured, to create the circumstances surrounding the first test.

But, sometimes, he thought it might be that they were manipulated as well. Innocent. The selves he saw with Ken seemed to remember nothing. They didn't recall how Ken had helped him through the computer. Didn't pick out the grudge against the Chosen and how their powers had been sealed. Didn't pick out the familiar name, the familiar hair… and how V-mon who should have known better than all of them hadn't even recognised the boy, at any stage.

And yet, they'd had no problem jogressing together. Was that another of Ken's betrayals – but he couldn't blame that one Ken. Ken had a reason to not recall. V-mon on the other hand… maybe V-mon, too, had a reason. He'd been badly hurt, after all. He couldn't blame V-mon or Ken because they'd both been hurt because of him, but Agumon didn't have that luxury. Agumon had been fine. Reuinited with Taichi again and fine.

So why did Agumon not recall? Did Ryo mean so little? So little that they could fight in the D1 tournament to dress him up as the virgin sacrifice?

Because he was with Taichi and that was all that mattered to him, to any of them.

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Milleniummon was an extreme example of the possessiveness digimon showed their Chosen. But all the digimon had it. Wormmon was perhaps the one who controlled himself the best, all things considered. After all, he'd had to deal with Ken – or the Kaiser, rather – having so many ringed slaves far more useful and used far more often than him. And for Wormmon to not go ballistic and destroy them all – but who knew? That might have been more Wormmon's abilities or his impression of them than anything else. If he'd been a sharp-fanged dinosaur like Agumon, things might have been very different.

But that was beside the point. Wormmon might not have been a sharp-fanged dinosaur but Agumon was. And Agumon made use of those fans when he greeted Ryo without much recognition in the D1 Tourmanet. And he'd been happy to see him before, happy before he'd been frozen in stone and Ken had been tossed in to pick up the slack.

Ken, who according to Gennai, shouldn't have even been there at that time. But he'd had a waiting partner. And it would have been impossible to become Imperialdramon without him. Lies. All lies.

And that Agumon didn't know him again. Another lie. Agumon chose to rip him out.

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He supposed they must have known even then. Before the email was sent to him – through Ken and that was another suspicious thing. Had they just been using Ken, or had he known as well? He wanted to believe they'd just used him. He was only one he could believe something like that about because the others had proven false…but, sometimes, he wondered if the boy wouldn't have proven himself false as well if given half a chance.

Because when he first met Agumon and Taichi, and even that second time – he'd never imagined things would wind up like this.

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When he first met Taichi, he was everyone's friend. Somewhat too trusting – but nowhere naïve as Ken, as Ryo learnt afterwards. Because this Taichi had almost a year's worth of adventures under his belt (digital world time, of course, since in the real world it had been the exact moment they disappeared) and was used to working with a team.

The problem was he was used to working with a _team_ , and Ryo was an only child and used to working alone.

But they got somewhere. Taichi was the big brother who occasionally gave orders instead of recommendations, but they found a middle point. So when Taichi vanished mid-rescue – the last of the kidnapped – of course Ryo agreed to partner up with Agumon as a temporary measure and get them all back.

And then Ryo and Agumon became close friends. Or so he'd thought.

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Of course, Agumon went straight for Taichi once the other Chosen were free. But he did glance back with a thanks and goodbye and we'll meet again when Ryo was whisked back home, and the same with Taichi. The others did the same, but it was more hollow with them. They greeted their saving grace and not a friend. But of course Taichi and Agumon would tell all about him, and they'd been so warm when they'd met officially in the D1 tournament…

But now he knew that warmth had been all a lie.

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The second time he met the pair, it was right before they were turned into stone between the rifts of time. Milleniummon's doing, again. A bit too exact to plan, but he wouldn't put it past them. They'd planned an entire tournament after all.

He wondered if those other Tamers, the ones that had teased him so, had been aware. Maybe that's why they hated him so much. Not because he'd apparently defeated Milleniummon, one of the Chosen's most powerful enemies, by himself.

He hadn't. He'd had Ken's help the second time, and a different partner in each of those attempts. But who cared, in the end? Whether they'd been kind or mean, every Chosen in that D1 tournament had set him up as meat for sacrifice. Every one of them had betrayed him.

And Taichi had had the _gall_ to say it to his face.

 _'Ryo, this tournament…was…'_

And now he remembered nothing. Or seemed to remember nothing. Didn't remember the Ken who'd been helping him – regardless of whether he'd ever said his last name or not. Didn't remember the Wormmon who'd been with him, always one of this team. Didn't remember who'd saved them from Milleniummon the first time, who'd partnered with Agumon, who'd partnered with V-mon later on and the only reason Daisuke was spared that was because he hadn't met V-mon himself until after Ryo had almost gotten him killed…

But that was V-mon. And Ken. And Osamu who actually did wind up dead, in the end.

Taichi and Agumon and the other Chosen didn't get that excuse.


	3. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

Somehow I lost the folder - actually, the folder higher up that had almost all my completed fanfics in, including the remaining two chapters of this one. Since there were only two though, I can sort of remember what's in the individual chapters. I won't rewrite most of them, because that'll be a lot of rewriting in total (there was about ten fics in that folder). But I'll try and summarise what I'll remember so you guys aren't left hanging, plot wise!

Chapter 3 - Milleniummon and Partners

 _This chapter focuses largely on the time intervening the Brave Tamer game and the Tamers anime, where it's more or less only Milleniummon/Monodromon fusion and Ryo. It covers how Ryo associates his current lack of faith in people with what Milleniummon, in a twisted way, was trying to protect him from, and how it feels to have a real fated partner instead of the temporary ones like Agumon and V-mon, and how Cyberdramon is still fighting every digimon they cross paths with so they can be properly alone. But he feels a little lonely sometimes, and Milleniummon/Cyberdramon seems to understand that, because he changes from fighting every digimon to fighting only strong ones, so the younger and weaker ones he can play with with Ryo as Monodramon._

Chapter 4 - Ruki and the other Tamers

 _This chapter covers the D1 Tournament in the Tamers world and then skips ahead to the Tamers' first visit to the digital world, where Ryo eventually tags along with them. Firstly, Ryo is surprised by how hurt Ruki is for losing the tournament, not understanding what he's played as revenge is important to her who wants to win honestly in a different way. He's also surprised at how Cyberdramon doesn't automatically attack the Tamers, and is even willing to help them, contrary to how he's acted with Ken in particular in the Adventure world. Finally understanding that this is Milleniummon telling him to take a chance with trusting the Tamers and having friends again, he decides to go with them to the human world and leave behind that solitude, finally putting the past in the Adventure world and with the Chosen behind him._


End file.
